The Czech high-stakes grinder is often the focal point at the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas and today he saw off a massive field of 10,794 entries to not only bag another title but to also jump to the top of the Player of the year standings.
Martin Kabrhel is something of a character. He generally always has been at live poker tournaments but recently he seems to have stepped it up a gear.
Anyone who has been following the WSOP 2025 can’t have failed to see some of his antics, leading many to ask if he’s going too far. But all of that said, he’s clearly one hell of a poker player.
He’s been a regular at the highest stakes live tournament for more than a decade, and particularly active since 2017 with great success.
And in Event #75: $1,000 Mini Main Event, he came up with the goods once again by defeating Alexander Yen who started the day as chip leader.
This win also marks Kabrhel’s first bracelet win in Las Vegas with the other three coming in the WSOP Europe.
Action Recap
The final day’s action kicked off with only five players after the final table had already thinned down in the later hours of yesterday’s session.
Martin Kabrhel was second in chips with 33 big blinds to Alexander Yen’s 38. Chasing them down was Belarussian Vadzim Lipauka holding 31.
In the opening minutes, it was Lipauka who dished out the first elimination. Bartlomiej Swieboda called off Lipauka’s shove from the small blind with K♥ 6♦ and found himself up against K♣ 9♣.
The board ran out 2♠Q♥ 3♦ 8♥ 7♥ to send the Pole packing with a $246,900 prize.
Kabrhel then turned up the heat with typically aggressive play, seizing the chip lead and taking chips from both Yen and Lipauka.
Hungary’s John Ishak picked up a double-up against Yen but soon frittered away his chips to leave him with only six blinds which almost disappeared in the midst of a dealer error.
Ishak shoved on the button for all his chips and got a call from Martin Kabrhel in the big blind. Kabrhel flipped over Qâ™ 5â™ only for Ishak to suddenly realise that the dealer had mucked his cards accidentally.
The floor was called and fortunately for Ishak he would only forfeit the minimum raise. On the unfortunate side, Kabrhel would take those chips only a few minutes later.
This time Kabrhel shoved on the button with J♦ 2♥ and Ishak called it off in the big blind with K♣ 6♣. The board came down an innocuous 8♥ Q♣ 3♣ but the Czech panto villain picked up a gut shot on the 9♠turn and then got his wish on the 10♦ river.
Yen took this as his que to get a move on or else Kabrhel was going to run away with it. A big coinflip win against his main rival was a big help for Yen. He then turned his pocket eights into quads to win another flip; this time against Lipauka.
That left the Belarusian with just a single chip which was lost to Martin Kabrhel in the next hand. Lipauka banked a nice $426,550 for his third place finish which was a second-best career score.
This set up the heads-up battle but by now Kabrhel had a 2.5-1 advantage. It was expected that it could be a quick rollover but Yen dug his heels in as the Czech motormouth spouted off incessant tabletalk, barely pausing to take breath.
Yen even held the lead for a short while before his rival doubled up. Yen did get a double-up of his own back at one point but he never held the lead again.
It was all over when Kabrhel open-jammed A♣ K♠and got a call from A♥ 4♠. A king on the flop was enough to hand Martin Kabrhel the title and bracelet.
Now let’s see if he can repeat the trick on the $10,000 Main Event which kicked off yesterday.
Event #75: $1,000 Mini Main Event Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize (USD) |
| 1 | Martin Kabrhel | Czechia | $843,140 |
| 2 | Alexander Yen | United States | $566,170 |
| 3 | Vadzim Lipauka | Belarus | $426,550 |
| 4 | John Ishak | Hungary | $323,460 |
| 5 | Bartlomiej Swieboda | Poland | $246,900 |
| 6 | Lucas Lew | Argentina | $189,710 |
| 7 | Allan Tirel | France | $146,740 |
| 8 | Katie Lindsay | United States | $114,260 |
| 9 | Christopher Davis | United States | $89,577 |
